As visitor expectations continue to evolve, we believe the role of technology within attractions needs to evolve with them. At Merac, we have spent more than 20 years working with visitor attractions, and increasingly, the conversations we are having with operators are moving beyond ticketing and towards the bigger picture: how technology can help create a better visitor experience, support teams and provide operators with the information they need to make better decisions.

We know that running an attraction involves balancing a huge number of priorities. There is the visitor experience, of course, but behind that sits a complex operation involving admissions, memberships, retail, food and beverage, staffing, marketing, fundraising, finance and much more.

For visitors, however, none of those departments exist in isolation.

A guest may discover your attraction through a search on their phone, visit your website, purchase a ticket, receive pre-visit information, arrive onsite, buy lunch, visit the shop and perhaps decide to become a member before they leave. To them, it is one experience.

That is why we believe technology has an increasingly important role to play in connecting those different parts of the visitor journey.

From ticketing to connected commerce

When we first started working with attractions, ticketing was understandably at the centre of the conversation. Admission is the starting point for most visitor attractions, and having a reliable system for managing bookings, payments and entry remains fundamental.

But the role of technology has changed considerably since then.

Today, we see attractions looking for systems that can do much more than process a ticket sale. They want to understand how visitors interact with their attraction before, during and after their visit, while also making it easier for their teams to manage the day-to-day operation.

That is why Merac has evolved beyond traditional ticketing into a wider commerce platform covering admissions, memberships, retail, food and beverage, fundraising and guest communications.

The thinking is simple: if these activities are all part of the same visitor journey, there is value in making sure the systems supporting them can work together.

A family might purchase tickets online, add an experience to their booking, buy lunch during their visit and spend money in the gift shop. If those transactions sit in completely separate systems, it can be difficult to see the full picture.

When those interactions are connected, operators have an opportunity to understand more about visitor behaviour while creating a more joined-up experience.

Giving teams more time with visitors

One of the things we are particularly conscious of when talking to attractions about technology is that the objective should never be to remove the human element.

Attractions are people businesses. The welcome visitors receive, the interaction they have with a member of staff and the help they are given when something goes wrong all contribute to the memories they take home.

Technology should support those interactions, not replace them.

For us, the real opportunity is to use technology to take away some of the repetitive processes that occupy staff time. If a system can make a transaction quicker, simplify a membership enquiry, reduce manual administration or give a team member immediate access to the information they need, that can free people up to spend more time looking after visitors.

We have developed our Experience Engineers approach with this principle in mind. Rather than thinking of support as simply fixing a technical issue when something goes wrong, our Experience Engineers work with attractions to understand how their systems are being used and where there may be opportunities to improve the wider operation.

Technology should not become another problem for an attraction team to manage it should make their jobs easier.

Making better use of the data you already have

Another area where we see significant potential is data.

Every attraction collects information, whether it is ticket sales, attendance patterns, membership activity, retail transactions or food and beverage purchases. The challenge is often not gathering the data; it is bringing it together and turning it into something useful.

When information is spread across multiple systems, it can be difficult to understand what is really happening across the business. Connecting that information can provide a much more complete picture of visitor behaviour.

Understanding attendance patterns can help with staffing and capacity planning. Looking at food and beverage purchasing can support stock management and production planning. Membership information can help attractions understand repeat visitation, while transaction data can highlight opportunities to improve the visitor experience or develop additional revenue.

The important point is that attractions do not necessarily need to collect more data. There is often considerable value in making better use of the information they already have.

The transaction is only the beginning

We also believe it is important to look at the visitor relationship beyond the initial ticket purchase.

A ticket is a transaction, but it is also the beginning of a relationship with a visitor. That relationship might develop through a membership, a donation, a retail purchase, an event or simply through the communications an attraction sends before and after a visit.

When those interactions can be understood together, attractions have an opportunity to create a more personalised and joined-up experience while gaining a better understanding of their visitors.

This is not something that only applies to large theme parks or major visitor destinations. Connected systems can be particularly valuable for smaller and independent attractions, where teams are often working across multiple areas of the business and have limited time and resources.

Our work with Birmingham’s Coffin Works is a good example. The attraction adopted Merac to bring areas including ticketing, operational reporting, food and beverage sales, memberships and Gift Aid into a more connected system.

For an independent attraction, reducing the number of separate processes and systems that staff need to manage can make a real difference to day-to-day operations.

Technology should solve a problem, not create one

There is no single technology solution that will be right for every attraction. The needs of a small independent visitor attraction will be very different from those of a major theme park, zoo or multi-site destination.

The starting point should always be understanding the individual challenges of the business.

Perhaps the priority is improving online conversion, reducing queues, improving membership retention, gaining greater visibility of revenue or simply making life easier for frontline teams.

Whatever the challenge, technology should be there to address it.

For us, this thinking sits behind the concept of “rehumanising commerce.” It might sound counterintuitive in an increasingly digital world, but the idea is to use technology to make experiences more human rather than less.

If a visitor can complete a booking without unnecessary steps, that is a better experience. If a member of staff can quickly access the information they need to answer a question, that creates a better interaction. If a queue moves more quickly because transactions are simpler, the visitor has more time to enjoy the attraction.

The technology itself should largely sit in the background. What visitors should notice is that things are easier.

Looking beyond the ticket

For BALPPA members considering their own technology strategies, we would suggest starting with the visitor journey rather than the technology.

Map out the experience from the moment someone first discovers your attraction through to the end of their visit and the communications that follow. Look at every stage and consider where there are unnecessary steps, duplicated processes or areas where staff are having to manually move information between systems.

It can also be valuable to experience the journey from the visitor’s perspective. Try booking your own attraction as a first-time visitor, on a mobile phone, without relying on any internal knowledge. Look at how easy it is to find information, complete a booking and understand what happens next.

Then consider what happens once the visitor arrives. How quickly can staff access the information they need? How easy is it for visitors to make additional purchases or engage with other experiences? And are your systems giving you a joined-up view of the visitor?

These exercises do not necessarily require a major investment. They can simply help identify where the biggest opportunities are.

The attractions industry has always been about creating memorable experiences, but increasingly, that experience begins long before a visitor walks through the gates.

For us at Merac, moving beyond the ticket means looking at the whole relationship between an attraction and its visitors, and asking how connected commerce, data and technology can make that relationship stronger.

We know that every attraction is different, but the fundamental challenge is one we all share: how do we make the visitor experience as seamless, engaging and memorable as possible, while giving our teams the tools they need to deliver it?

We believe technology can play an important part in answering that question not by replacing the human experience, but by taking away the friction that gets in its way.